Image Credits: Slide 1: David Fulmer - http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveynin/4758317813 Slide 19: Henry Chen - http://www.flickr.com/photos/henrychen/178081785/ Slides 20-22: http://www.sweetwatertravel.com/ Slides 23, 25: http://www.theherbfarm.com/

1. ”For the benefit and enjoyment of the people”
Marketing, sustainability and today’s traveler.
September 20, 2011
MERCURYcsc

2. ”TO PRESERVE AND PROTECT…”

3. ”…FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF THE PEOPLE.”

4. WITHOUT DEMAND THERE IS NO
SUSTAINABILITY
What works in creating a sustainable destination is not necessarily
the same thing you market it with.

5. CONNECTING BRANDS WITH PEOPLE WHO VALUE
AUTHENTIC PLACES AND IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES
#16 in Outside Magazine’s 50 Best Places to Work

6. GEOTRAVELERS VALUE AUTHENTIC PLACES
 55 million U.S. Geotravelers
 25% higher HH income
 Take 30% more trips
 Are influentials, the first to adopt products within their primary area of passion
 Reconnecting with traditional activities
 Mindful and attracted to simplicity,
 Already adapted to the new era in which our economy is emerging

7. GEOTRAVELERS ARE LEADING AMERICA’S
AWAKENING
CULTURAL LANDSCAPE
Source: Gfk Roper, Annual Report 2007

8. TRAVEL IS NOT SOMETHING THEY
DO.PART OF WHO THEY ARE.
IT IS

9. GEOTRAVELERS ARE YOUR TRAVELERS
”I think travel should be a full-body
experience – that we ought to
observe
and absorb the natural world, the
culture, the language, the local arts –
with curiosity and respect.”
– Liz
MercuryCSC Focus Group Panelist

10. TRAVEL REPRESENTS THE APEX
OF THEIR ESSENTIAL NEEDS

11. TRAVEL REPRESENTS THE APEX
OF THEIR ESSENTIAL NEEDS

12. PEOPLE SPEND THE MOST ON WHAT THEY NEED
Geotravelers spend a higher percentage of their already high
incomes on travel.

13. YET THEY DISDAIN CONSPICOUS CONSUMPTION
Geotravelers crave experiences that make their world bigger.
If your brand doesn’t facilitate their experience, they will not buy.

14. PURCHASE DECISION CRITERIA OF
THE GEOTRAVELER…
 Connects me to a passion
 Provides a high degree of utility
 Makes me unique
 Saves me time
 Is sustainable
 Gives me knowledge or expertise
…SUSTAINABILITY IS JUST ONE COMPONENT

15. DON’T MISTAKE YOUR PASSION FOR THE
TRAVELER’S
”Entrepreneurs are in love with their ideas, and they should be.
After
all, why would anyone commit their energy, life savings, and no
small
part of their sanity to anything less than a consuming passion.
Because entrepreneurs are passionate about their idea, product,
or
service, they innocently assume other people will feel the same.
Here’s the bad news – it just doesn’t work that way!”
tenonline.org

16. CREATING A PRODUCT VS. MARKETING ONE
Production oriented companies: Product is manifestation of
resources used to produce it.
Marketing oriented companies: Product is a bundle of functional
and emotional benefits as viewed by the target consumer.
marketing91.com

17. GEOTRAVELERS SEEK AUTHENTIC PLACES AND
IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES…
 Sustainability is a cost of entry
 It can be a deciding factor if all other things are equal
 But it is not the reason they are traveling
…DON’T LEAD WITH GREEN.

18. MERCURYcsc
Image: Henry Chen

19. DON’T LEAD WITH GREEN,
LEAD WITH THE EXPERIENCE
 Sweetwater Travel
 The Herbfarm
 Nissan Leaf
 Montana Office of Tourism

21. THE EXPERIENCE
”For most, just the opportunity to experience a
pristine landscape, undeveloped river valleys
lined with healthy forests or a pair of Mongolian
riders driving their stock through a river meadow
on a crisp fall morning is enough. But for the fly
fishermen, Mongolia makes a great trip even
better; it is home to the world’s largest trout that
will attack your skated dry flies.”

22. SUSTAINABILITY
”We are not an eco-tourism company
that does some fishing.”
We are a fly-fishing company that protects
the resource.

25. THE EXPERIENCE
"A celebration of the FOODS and WINES of the
PACIFIC NORTHWEST. A THEMATIC nine
course DINNER with six matched wines and a
SINGLE SEATING nightly."

28. INTEGRATE SUSTAINABILITY INTO
THE BUSINESS ITSELF.
THEN MARKET THE EXPERIENCE.

29. Thank you
Jeff Welch, President
jeff.welch@mercurycsc.com
406-922-2282